To some of those in our great country...your thinking...what is he talking about? Those of us who live in the snowbound parts of this country have to deal with the overzealous plow drivers who treat mailboxes as a point system. Kind of like the more you hit the more points you get. One of these days the home owners wise up to this game and get even. Here are a couple such stories that either were sent to me or I know of personally. Please feel free to share your own. Some of these are an absolute riot.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

Until I moved to Maine, I never knew mailboxes could have such short lives. A while ago I went by my old house on Route 58 in Hanson Mass, a two lane highway, and my mailbox and post that I'd installed in 1986 was still there. The State plows had plenty of opportunity to wipe the thing out, but haven't done so.

I swear they do it on purpose around here.

Anyway, the first time my mailbox got wiped out in Maine I put the thing back together and, sure enough, the next snowstorm the thing was off in the ditch again.

I just said to heck with it, I left the darn mailbox in the ditch. All I get is junk mail and bills anyway.

Well, 6 years later I still don't have a mailbox, and I don't miss the thing. I just don't get mail at my home anymore. I'll be working in my front yard on a Saturday morning and the postman will drive in in his little jeep and he just glares daggers at me.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

Around 1964 I saw some flashes in Newport, NH. Our neighbor was installing a new post. It was an 8 foot railroad rail sunk 4 feet into the ground. He had a second rail 30 degrees from the horizontal. The mailbox was inside the apex of the top angle. The mailman said it was one very fine mailbox. Before the installation he had his property surveyed. The new mailbox post was six inches outside the state right of way.

You see the mailbox was on a sweeping right bend and the state plows always got a running start so they could make it around the right curve. The mailbox owner lost at least two mailboxes every winter. He put reflectors on the new post.

The following February there were many flashing lights out at the road. The state plow truck has impaled itself on the new mailbox. It was unable to back away under its own power. Not only that; the plow frame and truck frame were both bent and the overenthusiastic plow driver had a fat lip. The state police sergeant personally was going to write up the owner. However, the owner told the trooper he could avoid being embarrassed in court if he just looked at the certified and duly recorded survey. The mailbox was indeed outside the right of way.

Next time I was in NH there was a big flashing light and really big reflectors on the curve.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

He used to lose his mailbox every winter at least three or four times a season. Not any longer. Utility crews were coming around to remove an old utility pole and he ran right out there and asked what they were going to do with it. The worker said we are going to remove it and put in a new one. My father-in-law in his not so usual quick thinking said you think you could cut it off at about here and I could attach my mailbox to it. Well the utility workers thought about it and discussed it and said they could do that. He has never lost a mailbox since. However, he says you can hear them get a little to close with the plows every now and then and have to stop and get out and have to do something and they are out there for awhile...and I am sure not going out there to find out the problem when I know exactly why he says. They are aiming for the mailbox and forget that it is mounted on a utility pole. That sucker is not going anywhere for years to come. I have seen others mounted in similar fashion in rural Maine.

In Honor of my nephew serving our country out of Baumholder Army Base in Germany.

I have a better one than that............our mailman back into ours on a clear sunny day ......took the top of the wrought iron mailbox right off and it badly damaged his truck!! He would not replace it and said our home owners insurance would cover it.......... also said if we didn't have a legal mail receptacle out there he would not deliver our mail the next day......nice guy! I usually don't believe in Karma, but one week later his appendix burst.

He was not a nice person and he no longer delivers mail to us, he is someone else's problem.

My folks have lost about 15 of them in 48 yrs, but not all was snow plow issues. Their mail box sat back enough, but like jamo14 said, it's the force of the snow from the speed them trucks are doing that causes the boxes to come off. Once in a while one will actually clip a box. Since then within the last 5 yrs, they moved it back a little.

But the other issues have been cars losing control & running out of the road & knocking the mail box to the ground (post too) & then hitting the elec pole in the neighbor's yard or missing it & going back onto the road by way of the neighbor's drive. There's been 4 of them getting run over & keeping on going issues. 3 have been due to snow plow trucks. The rest from punks smashing everyone's mail boxes with ball bats or what ever.

Smoke
"We know that Mother Nature is a woman. If she were a man, there would be no rain on race day."

I haven't lost one myself as I get my mail at the post office. But once when I was working in Parkersbug, WV there were about 10 boxes on a round brick pedestal that were taken out when a guy crashed into them. They were about 6 feet off the main road too. I didn't see the wreck, but came by right after it had happened, the guy was speeding and was drunk too.